Crew steal Supporters' Shield, 1-0 victory from D.C. United in final regular season match
By Tom Holdren, Columbus Wired Contributor

My what a year can do. Looking back on the 2007 season it was D.C. United claiming the Supporters' Shield for most points in a season and the Columbus Crew watching the playoff door slam in their face. It was only fitting that the Crew get a little revenge and the last laugh during their home, and season, finale with a 1-0 win Sunday evening at Crew Stadium.

United, whose fate lay in their own hands, needed a win to grab the final spot in playoffs. Columbus on-the-other-hand simply wanted to make it through the game with no injuries. The Crew locked up the best record a couple weeks ago and had been on a two game winless skid coming into tonight's match, and due to the importance of the game to D.C., a three game streak was inevitable.

As thought, D.C. came out attacking on all cylinders.

Defender Ivan Guerrero got the shots going in the 7th minute when he sent a left footer whizzing over the bar from 10 yards out. Guerrero wasn't finished and blasted another, 5 minutes later, directly at Hesmer for the save.

Bryan Namoff eluded the usually stout Crew defense for an open header off a corner-kick in the 13th minute. The ball was perfectly placed over Crew keeper William Hesmer, but snagged the far post and harmlessly bounced out of play.

D.C. played the aggressor the whole first half outshooting Columbus 9-2 but drawing no blood before intermission.

The second half was played much like the first for D.C.: with a sense of urgency.

United came out strong once again, but it seems as though there was an invisible lid on the goal.

A United corner kick was bouncing around in the Crew box, when all of a sudden; Thabiso Khumalo has a "what I found". The ball seemingly hunts Khumalo down at the 6 yard line; the midfielder strikes, and the ball unexplicably bounces off the crossbar straight down and was immediately cleared by the Crew defense.

"You come into a day like today where everything's on the line, and I can't fault the guys, they did everything possible,” said DC United head coach Tom Soehn. “We hit the post three times; I don't know what else they could have done. We just came up short, as far as chances."

As if luck were against the United fans all evening the scenario gets eerily worse.

A minute after the Khumalo mishap, Crew forward Brad Evans laced a shot from 30, bouncing off the left post and into the back of the net for the games only score in the 77th. It was the fifth goal of the season for Evans.

Thinking ahead to their first playoff run in many year, Crew goalkeeper Will Hesmer summed it best. “I think we did exactly what you have to do in a playoff game. You've got defend, you've got work hard and you've got to just trust that the goals will come."

Crew fans taunted the United with "no more playoffs" for the games final fifteen minutes.

"It's just great to see the Nordecke and the support that's been there all season. I don't think it's ever been like that; just the emotion and the passion that is there in the corner,” Crew head coach Sigi Schmid said.

To add insult to injury: Columbus was awarded with the Supporters' Shield after the game, which only last year belonged to D.C.

This match should provide the Crew with momentum as they travel to Kansas City on Saturday to begin their MLS playoff run.